{"id":549,"date":"2011-06-06T14:50:28","date_gmt":"2011-06-06T18:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/?p=549"},"modified":"2011-06-06T14:50:28","modified_gmt":"2011-06-06T18:50:28","slug":"scarlet-women-parrots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2011\/06\/scarlet-women-parrots.html","title":{"rendered":"scarlet women (parrots) ~"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The eclectus parrot<\/a> has it right: you can easily<\/em> tell males from females. Because the males are bright green and the females are scarlet. Yup — so different in appearance that folks used to think they were separate species.<\/p>\n

I’m betting that most of us appreciate this. Because face it: men & women often think quite differently. I’ve spent more time than I should admit publicly in gender studies: feminist theory, critical theory, the whole field of how & why women & men appear different. But the parrots have it down. They’re just different. Men are from green, women from scarlet. For parrots it’s that simple.<\/p>\n

When I was raising my elder son, I thought I’d beat the system. He would have a doll. He would learn to cook. None of these gender stereotypes for my first-born. No toy guns — no cultural violence. And here’s what happened:\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He made guns out of his fingers. Out of Legos. Out of sticks and blocks and anything that was vaguely gun-suggestive. He refused his beautifully hand-made doll until it was\u00a0 anatomically correct (try telling that<\/em> to a doll maker!). He only liked to cook if it involved messes. And all of this was him, believe me.<\/p>\n

Our second son even more so. Although he did take home ec (or whatever we’re calling it these days — I seem to recall it was ‘family science’) twice — sewing his silk boxer legs shut the first time…<\/p>\n

So for me, the parrots just make it more obvious. We are really <\/em>different. Enough that sometimes we may well seem like separate species…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The eclectus parrot has it right: you can easily tell males from females. Because the males are bright green and the females are scarlet. Yup — so different in appearance that folks used to think they were separate species. I’m betting that most of us appreciate this. Because face it: men & women often think…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,37,61],"tags":[11,62,1202,63],"class_list":["post-549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britton-gildersleeve","category-family","category-gender","tag-beginners-heart","tag-eclectus-parrot","tag-gender","tag-lego-guns"],"yoast_head":"\nscarlet women (parrots) ~ - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The eclectus parrot has it right: you can easily tell males from females. 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